1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method for preparing silicon carbide powder.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Silicon carbide has found use as semiconductor material for various electronic devices and purposes in recent years. Silicon carbide is especially useful due to its physical strength and high resistance to chemical attack.
Silicon carbide also has excellent electronic properties, including radiation hardness, a relatively wide band gap, high saturated electron drift velocity, high-temperature operation, and absorption and emission of high-energy photons in the blue, violet, and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum.
Silicon carbide powder can be prepared, for example, by mixing raw materials such as a silicon (Si) source and a carbon (C) source and heating the mixture. Known methods for preparing silicon carbide powder include the Acheson process, the carbothermal reduction process, the liquid polymer thermal decomposition process, the direct reaction process or the CVD process. Particularly, the liquid polymer thermal decomposition process or the carbothermal reduction process has been used to prepare high-purity silicon carbide powder.
Among the above-mentioned processes, the direct reaction process is a process of synthesizing silicon carbide powder by a direct reaction between carbon (C) and silicon (Si) and has an advantage over other processes in that it can prepare high-purity silicon carbide powder.
However, the direct reaction process has a problem in that it is difficult to control the stoichiometric ratio between carbon and silicon. In other words, because silicon carbide powder is synthesized by a direct reaction between carbon and silicon, the direct reaction process has various problems, including residual carbon or silicon and a decrease in the purity of silicon carbide powder.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method capable of synthesizing high-purity silicon carbide powder using the direct reaction process.